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2016-09-26 - Working out with the Black Bat
The mutant known as X-23 is crouched on a rooftop, peeling plastic from her skin. She's been in a fight recently, a big one too. The scene has long since been cleaned up, but her tactical armor still tells the tale as she's patched it together haphazardly for the time being. While X-23s skin is immaculate, clearly her armor has been extensively burned. She's peeling melted kevlar and polymer from spots, letting her healing factor do its work, then continuing on as she watches people down below. Fortunately, her domino mask is intact though she is sans a contact. There's a scent in the air. Close by, closer than it should be for the amount of warning. Luckily, the owner of the scent registers quickly; Black Bat is close, the girl who rarely talks and has yet to give or ask for a name. Seconds later, a shifting weight on the rooftop announces her location, though chances are good that she made the noise on purpose. Then Cassandra flops down on her tummy, resting her chin on her hands, and inspects X-23's damage with a critical eye. She lets the other girl start any conversation that's needed, though her raised eyebrow is obviously a question of sorts. Laura is doing her work with a singular claw. Scraping it out, then flicking it aside. She looks up, regarding Cassandra with her exposed eye, then comments,"Was fight other day, Bane and other. Stupid thermite ruined suit, made it stick." Cassandra actually opens her mouth and says, "Was there," though without even a hint of sarcasm or amusement. She runs her gaze over Laura's limbs, making sure that the girl isn't still wounded. Then, apparently satisfied with the situation, Cassandra rolls to her left side and rises to her feet. Hands up, in a guard. Facing Laura. X-23's own reflexes are as sharp as her claws, though being familiar with the Bat as she is, the single claw slips away as she raises her hands in a rough mirror of her. The spot where she's just peeled away plastic and kevlar is healing over even as they face each other. The human girl's lips smile at the edges, as Cass wastes no time. No explanation for the event, she steps in and side-kicks at Laura's shoulder, the inertia prepared to carry her right through the target. But also a move that Laura can easily handle, and nowhere near what Cassandra normally uses. That said, it's still fast! X-23 spins on heel, notsomuch dodging as moving with the blow. She raises the hand nearest the impacting foot to take hold of it as she uses her shoulders to offbalance the Bat in a takedown that'd see her going face first against most people. Her outstretched arm has an index finger pointing at the Bat's inner thigh as she says simply,"Claw." The Bat's right hand stops herself before hitting the ground, just. Her left hand, however, comes up and slaps X-23's index finger remarkably gently as her head turns to look at the lady who's got her down. "No," she says, staying down for longer than anyone would expect. A fist is shown, then an open hand, and then a rigid finger strike. "No claw tonight." Then, after she's made her point she's somehow slipped out of the hold and done a forward handspring to her feet, in guard. X-23 nods at her and flexes her arms and hands, popping every joint in rapid succession before fluidly sliding into a loose vale tudo posture somewhere between a tae kwon do stance and a tomoi stance. Rolling her shoulders once more, she's ready to dance. Cassandra Cain is moving literally the instant that X-23 is ready, not waiting to be told. Though to be fair, she did have the body language tell her. But again, it's moves that lack any subtlety; a right punch followed by a left, with a guard that's almost completely open. Cass is basically asking to be hit, though her moves are ridiculously fast and powerful. Laura might, just might, recognize them; they are the same moves that the thugs used on her in that last fight. X-23 isn't as fast as the Bat, having never had training to her caliber, but she's hardly lacking being a born assassin herself with no lacking in formal instruction or experience. At seventeen, there's no telling how many she's already taken down. She slips narrowly between the incoming punches, her hawklike gaze unblinking as she slaps them aside with sharp open handed swats to the inside of Cass's wrist. She's maneuvering in similar fashion to a fly weight boxer, hips centered to keep her feet beneath her while she defends. After the third maneuver though, she takes advantage of the subtle openings and immediately drops to palm the ground while bringing a knee up to shoulder level with the Bat coming in hard. Cassandra Cain gets nailed by the knee, actually being knocked back and to the ground. She didn't even try to slip the blow, it landed hard and clean sending her skidding across the roof in a pile, just like anyone else would from the shot. It looked like it really hurt! But, laying there, she's grinning a silent approval for a well-executed counter. And gets to her feet again, raising her guard. X-23 is mildly surprised at that landing on her. Her posture shifts ever so slightly, knowing from experience how she adjusts to style reliance. Her fists remain balled, the paired claw slits catch the light dully as she watches the other girl warily. Hawkishness is the theme for the evening. The mutant doesn't wait long, deciding after a beat to attack this time. She takes a few quick steps forwrd, then twists as she throws herself into a somersault with her foot arcing level with the Bat. No hands involved, those are tucked to fly as she knows better than to expect a one off like this to end a fight with someone like her. Somersault kick from X-23, powerful and precise. And Cassandra is only using moves that are found in the basic thug's handbook, taking the place of every idiot out there. Who are, often, physically stronger than the girls. Cassandra steps forward, letting Laura's kick expend most of its energy down her back, and catches the girl upside-down! Holding Laura around the waist, Cassandra plants her feet and flexes her body, using the power that she usually hides. And powerful she is! A body trained relentlessly, since she was old enough to crawl, and with a genetic disposition to both speed and power, she's easily able to pretend to thuggish power, and squeezes Laura around the waist! But again, the move is ridiculously simple, and Laura's claws could easily win her freedom. X-23 understood early on about claws being no no, but she isn't limited to such simple things. Her donor might be simple minded enough to be trapped by such a maneuver, but his compact mass prevents him from being as flexible as she. The small mutant twists more than actual writhing, though she does that initially until she figures out the problem. Delivering a quick upwards elbow to her rear, she then throws her arms towards the ground and quickly makes to grabbing at the Bat's leg to yank at it! Sticking to her evening's theme of acting dumb, Cassandra's breath whooshes out when the elbow lands. Finding her legs entangled, she falls to the ground with what seems to be a complete lack of coordination, allowing Laura to go free, and lands flat on her back with a thud that could be heard inside the building. A grin and a thumbs-up from the ground, and suddenly Cass is on her feet with a piece of re-bar from the roof. Swinging it like a baseball bat, she swings on X-23 like a poorly trained baseball player. Who is trying to take her head off of her shoulders. Fast, again. X-23 herself gets to her feet with a kip, and responds to the rebar attack with something approximating a grin. She allowed her time to collect herself, favor for a favor. The response comes as quickly as the delivery however, she closes and catches the Bat by her hands with one hand and her inside forearm with the other to execute a rough approximation of a hiptoss as she overextends the other girl's momentum. A simple response to a simple attack. Melee is much easier than gunfire to combat in the open. Black Bat's moves would embarrass her mentors, but she's here for a purpose, and the hip toss sends her across the rooftop hard. She's giving Laura a real target, for real moves, and the hip toss would have taken down a lesser opponent. So she accepts the move, then gets to her feet again, sans rebar. Guard up. However, Laura's response seems to be taking things a little bit easy, because Cassandra steps it up a notch, to add more stress to the fight. Still a thug, she's suddenly a BIG thug. Her swings are still dumb, coming in as haymakers and elbows, but with nearly all the power she's got to give! Which is enough to make even the Bat himself stagger, if they were to land. She knows, she's laid a few on him in her time. But she needs to get Laura on her toes, so this is training. Though she's actually a big admirer of calm in battle, Laura is more the 'frag grenade in the teeth' kind of fighter, and it's not going to teach her much if she's not at least breathing hard. X-23 is a bottle of rage, like a teakettle sputtering on the stove. Her tactic is efficiency, so when the Bat comes at her with a hay maker, she exploits by stepping to the outside and punching with the knuckles of her fingers straight up at her arm pit. When she comes at with an elbow, she begins similarly but places a palm in the path of the elbow, then pushing upwards as she throws a countering uppercut at her solar plexus. This is the sort of scrapping that Laura does when meandering the alleys of Gotham. It's fun for her, especially since the muggers can't actually kill her. In her older days, she'd let herself be hurt just to feel alive. Nowadays she's a little different than that. With the strikes she's taken, Cassandra should be on the ground writhing in pain, or unconscious. But now that she knows what her new recruit is doing to the thugs when she's not around, she stops playing the game and hooks a leg to stop further combat. It's a firm grip, but to differentiate it from what she's BEEN doing, she speaks. "Enough." Then, to punctuate it, she gives an approving nod. What can I say, she learned stoic from the best. The bladed girl squints a little as she balances one leg, hopping occasionally until she's released. X-23 hrms a then, and squats to take a breather. She doesn't need one, being able to fight on indefinitely thanks to her mutant factor. She peers up at her and utters,"Was looking for 'Friends of Humanity'. Terrorists, don't like mutants. Make guns, but don't know who funds here." Cassandra Cain can fight pretty near indefinitely herself, but generally isn't pushed that hard. Pity, really, it's good exercise. Though her player can't type that long, so she's unlikely to ever do so on screen. Ahem. Cassandra shrugs noncommitally, crossing her legs, and brushes her hair out of her face with a graceful but scarred hand. Obviously not a great deal of help in the detective and investigation area, she looks Laura over as she tries to come up with an answer. Since people who talk, with words, often expect an answer she's come to understand. "Gotham? Gang boss, super....villain..." She shrugs again, not really sure WHO funds things herself. Hm. Maybe should ask if she sees Batman. The mutant girl shakes her head and shrugs. She hmms a little and says,"Will find eventually. Found one cell already. Had machine shop, same bullets as that fight. Mercury, thermite. Is not good, obviously don't make them just buy." She hrms again and stands to walk to the ledge with that. X-23's about to head on her way herself. For once, the Bat isn't vanishing first. She sits where she is while X-23 heads on her way, thinking a little. Also, there's a slight chance that her hip might be dislocated. But she'll never admit it. Nope, all fine here. Shush.